Now, you must not lose sight of the bigger picture as we pay attention to the details of chapter 4. The anonymous human author of Hebrews had different ways of demonstrating the superiority of Christ. In this section he is saying that Jesus Christ gives a better rest than Moses and Joshua, a rest that is promised in the Psalms. Moses was not successful in bringing people to Canaan because they became disobedient and failed to enter. On the other hand Joshua could not have given them the true rest, based on the words of Psalm 95. Therefore, we are told of the promise of God in providing another rest in another day.
Is shall approach this question by an exposition of a passage in Hebrews before providing an application which has the answer. Unless our theology of rest is informed by the counsel of God from His Word, our consciences cannot be held captive, and renewed to transform our conduct.
1. God rested (vv. 4,5)
The passage before us speaks of God’s rest, dating back to when God’s works were finished before the foundation of the world (v.3). This rest is equal to the divine rest after creation, for we read in verse 4,
“For He has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.’”
From these verses we see that God actually rested. Did He rest because He got tired? No. He was creating rest by resting! He was setting an example on how the seventh day is to be observed and in so doing, He created a seven-day rhythm week, which is observed all over the world! God is the great exemplar for human beings and so while God rested to create rest for us, finite beings, He has effectively given us a cycle of work and rest every week.
Following the six days of creation, the seventh-day was a rest. Genesis 2:2 puts it this way,
And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
What was the seventh-day for?
1) To mark the completion of the first creation, which God had done out of nothing. God rested after He had finished His work that He had done.
2) To mark the blessedness of rest as one of the fruits of labour. God blessed the seventh-day and made it holy.
3) To mark the holy use of the Sabbath for God. God blessed the seventh-day and made it holy for His use. In so doing His creation of rest was done! He created rest in order that we may find our rest in Him and in none other. One day in seven is consecrated or set apart by God for his use.
4) To mark the practical use of the other six days for human labour. Human work and employment is specifically allocated by God six days. Work/labour and rest are so intrinsically intertwined so that one cannot receive one and reject the other. These called creation ordinances (just like marriage), given not just to the elect, but also to the whole world in God’s common grace. Those who reject any of them suffer loss in this life.
In creation, man was made in God’s image. God had intended that man would naturally be as God’s child, just as a child would reflect the appearance of his father. Since his Father worked creatively for six days and rested on the seventh, Adam, like a son, was to copy Him and labour six days in seven. Together God and Adam, on the seventh day, were to walk in the garden. That day was a time to listen to all the Father had to show and tell about the wonders of His creating work.
Thus the Sabbath Day was meant to be “Father’s Day” every week. It was “made” for Adam. It also had a hint of the future in it. The Father had finished His work, but Adam had not. But very tragically Adam fell into a hole called sin. He ruined everything, including the Sabbath. Instead of walking with God, he hid from God (Gen. 3:8). It was the Sabbath, Father’s Day, but God had to look for him!
This new context helps us to understand the significance of the fourth commandment. It was given to a fallen man—that is why it contains a “you shall not.” He was not to work, but to rest. Externally, that meant ceasing from his ordinary tasks in order to meet with God. Internally, it involved ceasing from all self-sufficiency in order to rest in God’s grace. Therefore, the fourth commandment requires the keeping holy to God such set times as He has appointed in His word, expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to Himself[1].
Clearly, we see that the Bible speaks of God’s ‘rest’ – something which God Himself enjoys and wants His people to enter and enjoy with Him. This is why we read over and over, “They shall not enter my rest.” He was jealous for them to enter, but their own rebellion was the hindrance, that prevented them from entering His rest. We know from the book of the beginnings, Genesis, that after the six days of creation, He rested from all His works. But was the seventh day rest sufficient? No, because long after creation was finished, He spoke to the Israelites through Moses of a rest He wanted the Israelites to enter. The picture of this rest was Canaan.
2. Those who disobeyed did not enter His rest (vv. 6-8)
The enjoyment of Canaan for the Israelites was promised. The promise was true and sure. However, they did not enter into it because of their disobedience (4:3, 5-6). But God continued to promise them rest, He urged them to enter and experience and enjoy it (v.7). If Joshua had managed to get them into that rest, such continuing promise of it could not have been made (v.8). That David speaks of rest so long after the conquest of Canaan show that the rest that God wanted them to enjoy had not been realized. The point is made – No one will be forced through the gates of heaven. No one will be admitted in heaven with his sins unatoned for. Unless the blood of the Lamb of God has been availed to wash away your sins you remain a stranger to the promises and realities of God’s promise and glory.
One of the methods that God used to teach the Israelites these spiritual truths was the use of visible, familiar figures, symbols and signs. This is the method used for those who are not accustomed to abstract truths, like children. Teachers use concrete teaching aids when dealing with illiterate people. Israelites were illiterate in spiritual things and so needed concrete teaching materials – this shows how patient and caring God is! The concrete materials for learning are what we call ‘types’, i.e. models or pictures of spiritual realities. For example, the seventh day following creation, is a picture of eternal rest with God. It is further typified by entrance and enjoyment to Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey. It can further be argued that the peace of God experienced both in the mind and the heart of a believer, after coming into Christ in salvation, is the closest picture we have of heaven.
But the point is that the Israelites hardened their hearts in rebellion (3:7-4:7). The exhortation given is, that these things took place as examples for us (1 Cor. 10:6). We are naturally given to rebellion, because the effects of the Fall is upon our system. Our sinful nature is in our DNA so that these warnings serve to help us from wandering away from the way that the Lord has graciously set before us.
The author of Hebrews found different ways of describing the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of them, which form the underlying motif of chapters 3 and 4, is that Jesus Christ gives the rest that neither Moses nor Joshua could provide. Under Moses, the people of God were disobedient and failed to enter into God’s rest (3:18). Psalm 95:11 (quoted in v.3) implies that Joshua could not have given the people “real rest” since “through David” God speaks about the rest he will give on another day (v. 7). This in turn implies that “There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (v. 9).
3. There is still the final Sabbath rest (vv. 9,10)
There is still a promised rest for the people of God to enter into (v.9). This rest is far better than anything that has been mentioned. It is the ultimate rest, which is in Christ. This rest begins here on earth and extends to eternal rest in celestial blessedness.
Notice that in speaking of this rest (3:18; 4:1, 3-6, 8) the author consistently used the same Greek word for “rest” katapausis. Then suddenly, in speaking about the “rest” that remains for the people of God, here in verse 9, he uses a different Greek word sabbatismos, (used only here in the NT). This word is a special reference to a Sabbath rest. This Sabbath rest is found in Christ (“Come … I will give you rest,” Matt. 11:28-30). The word rest the Lord uses here is a different one. Thus we are to “strive to enter that rest” (4:11) through the strength of faith that the Lord gives graciously.
This Sabbath rest (notice the emphasis in Greek of the word rest, since Sabbath means rest!), is ceasing from toil and labour of pain, thorns and thistles, but it is not inactivity. For whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His (v.10). Remember that the Father is working (John 5:17). It is the blissful communion and perfect enjoyment of God in the splendour of His holiness and glory. In this state, we believers find all our pleasure in God.
Considering this, what difference did the coming of Jesus make to the Sabbath day? In Christ crucified and risen, we find eternal rest (Matt. 11:28-30), and we are restored to communion with God (Matt. 11:25-30). The lost treasures of the Sabbath are restored, beginning with the Lord’s Day, but pointing to the eternal rest. We rest in Christ from our labour of self-sufficiency, and we have access to the Father (Eph. 2:18) by the Spirit. As we meet with Him, He shows us Himself, His will, His ways, His world, His purposes, His glory. And whatever was temporary about the Mosaic Sabbath must be left behind as the reality of the intimate communion of the Adamic Sabbath is again experienced in our worship of the risen Saviour on the first day of the week as the Lord’s Day.
The seventh-day rest is gone with the Mosaic Law of the old covenant. But the blood of Christ has inaugurated the new covenant (1 Cor. 11:25) which speaks better things for us. We rest on the Lord Day looking forward to the Sabbath that remains in heaven for the people of God. In so doing we show that we love God by keeping his commandment.
Those who accept the Ten Commandments as the moral law but reject or minimise the observance of the fourth commandment by saying that it is not taught in the New Testament must remember that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27-28). God made it for our enjoyment. But it remains under the watch and lordship of Christ. Therefore, if Christ is our Lord, then we shall obey his commandment, and especially since it comes with the motivation of being made for us.
Moreover, those who have gone back to the old covenant, like the Seventh Day Adventists must be reminded that the New Testament church ever since Christ rose from the dead worshipped on Sunday. The risen Lord met with them on Sundays. The Holy Spirit descended upon the gathered church on Sunday during the Day of Pentecost. The church of Christ universally retained this tradition as 1 Corinthians 16:1,2 teaches,
Now concerning the collection of the saints: As I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
The Corinthian church received instruction from the Apostle of Christ to take their special offering when they gathered – that is on the first day of every week (Sundays). This was not peculiar to the Corinthian church, but it was an instruction similar to the instruction given to the many churches of Galatia. The evidence in the book of Acts shows that although they evangelized in the Jerusalem temple and the synagogues on Saturdays, they still gathered as local churches representing the body of Christ on Sundays (Acts. 20:7) and not on Saturdays. We must never also forget that the early church was living at a period between the two covenants.
How are we to use the Lord’s Day? It is to be kept holy to the Lord by good planning and preparation beforehand so that no distractions happen on the Lord’s Day. Wash and iron your clothes between Monday and Saturday. We are also to observe a holy rest from all our employments and recreations. Look for such jobs that allow you to work Monday through Saturday. You must not auction the Lord’s time and thus steal the Lord’s time and so incur his wrath.
The Lord’s Day is exclusively and primarily for His use and not yours. This year’s December has a lot of distractions. We not only have Christmas on Sunday but also the World Cup Finals will be held on Sunday, the 18th December. It seems like the principalities are all allied together to hinder God’s people from worshipping for two Sundays in December. Others may even fail to begin the new year, 2023 well because the 1st is on Sunday! But true God’s children must adore the Lord more than anything else. Remember what the Lord says in his Word in Isaiah 58:13–14
[13] “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the LORD honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;
[14] then you shall take delight in the LORD,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (ESV)
May I encourage you to be all the more the diligent on the watch against worldliness. When the Lord’s Day is crowded by such employments and pleasures that are not commanded by God in His Word then you fall into worldlines and sensuality. Christmas is neither recognized nor commanded by God in his word. On what basis would you fail to obey God in that which is commanded to do that which is not? Is obedience not better than sacrifice? I pray that you would be all the more careful to keep the Lord’s Sabbath in the use of your words, works and thoughts on Sunday for such as build your soul and prepare you for glory.
If on Sunday, you were to be caught up in caring for the sick or those sorrowing or in grief, the Lord understands that these are works of mercy. It was wrong for the priest and the Levite to leave the man who had been attacked by robbers on his way to Jericho just because they were going to worship in Jerusalem. Works of mercy means that you will show love to your neighbour as evidence that you love God. Works of necessity are such as forces you to act in a humane manner like removing the donkey out of a ditch.
This view of the Sabbath helps us deal with the question “Is it ok to do XYZ on Sunday?—because I don’t have any time to do it in the rest of the week?” If this is our question, the problem is not how you use Sunday, it is how you are misusing the rest of the week. This view of the Lord’s Day helps us see the day as a foretaste of heaven. And it teaches us that if the worship, fellowship, ministry, and outreach of our churches do not give expression to that then something is seriously amiss. This is to say that many churches are not preparing their people for eternity.
But the Lord’s Day is meant for you to commune with the Lord as you wait for the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is primarily done in the public worship – the gathering of the saints. So do not neglect the gathering together of the saints as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Heb. 10:24,25).
Eternal Glory is the Sabbath Rest. Soon, behind the wonderful gates of Celestial city, every day, all day, will be “the Father’s Day!” Thus if here and now we learn the pleasures of a God-given weekly rhythm, it will no longer seem strange to us that the eternal glory can be described as a prolonged Sabbath! Let us look forward to it by groaning, “Come O Lord Jesus, Come!”
This is very edifying and it builds us up as believers in our most holy faith! Thank you Pastor Murungi for taking time to research on it and for sharing it with the body of Christ! Margaret
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